1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to methods for electronic games of chance, and, more particularly, to methods for determining payout amounts for electronic games of chance.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Wherever a new game of chance is developed or a new payout scheme is developed for a game of chance, it is necessary to calculate the amount payable to the player for the game in order for the owner of the game or the administrative agency regulating the game of chance to properly evaluate the acceptability of the payout scheme.
For example, in a 5-card draw video poker game of chance where the player deposits a certain amount of money to play the game and is dealt five cards with the option of keeping zero or more of the cards in favor of exchanging for new cards, a variety of betting and paying options are available depending on the player's final hand, which in traditional poker can be a single-card high, a pair, two pairs, three-of-a-kind, straight, flush, full-house, straight-flush, four-of-a-kind, and royal flush. If a payout scheme is developed where each type of hand enumerated above is given a monetary value, the question then becomes what is the maximum payout, the average payout, or other statistical data of interest.
This problem is relatively simple if there is no drawing of new cards. The solution for a particular type of hand would then be the probability of that particular type of hand occurring multiplied by the payout value for that particular hand.
The problem becomes complicated when there is one or more drawing of cards where the number of possible outcomes becomes tremendously large. To further illustrate the situation, if the player receives a particular five-card hand and decides to give up two cards, the resulting hand depends on the two cards given up and the two new cards drawn. All of the possible resulting hands would have to be tabulated as a function of the number and the particular cards given up in order to properly understand the probability of the types of hands occurring and to calculate the corresponding payout statistics.
If this problem were to be solved by currently available computing methods and machines, it would take months if not years to calculate all of the probabilities of a particular game of chance. Thus, a new method is needed for the computation of the probabilities of the occurrence of the possible types of hands and the corresponding payout amounts.